| Abwehr |
German military intelligence |
| AHS |
Arlington Hall Station |
| "BJ" |
"blue jacket” or “Black Jumbo,” terms for diplomatic translations done by the GC&CS |
| BPIE |
Bletchley Park Intelligence Exchange |
| BRUSA |
Britain/United States of America |
| C/A |
Cryptanalysis |
| CI |
code instruction |
| Cipher |
A method of concealing plaintext by transposing letters or numbers or by substituting other letters or numbers according to a key |
| Code |
A method of concealing a message text in which arbitrary groups of letters, numbers, or other symbols replace words, phrases, letters, or numbers for the purposes of concealment or brevity. |
| COMINT |
communications intelligence |
| COMINTERN |
communist international |
| CSS |
Chief, Secret Service (Director, MI-6) |
| D/F |
direction finding |
| Einsatzgruppen |
"Action groups” consisting of SS, SD, and other security elements that were established to massacre Jews, partisans, and communist officials in the wake of the German armies during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. |
| Enigma |
German high-level cipher machine |
| FCC |
Federal Communications Commission |
| GC&CS |
Government Code and Cypher School |
| GCHQ |
Government Communications Headquarters (Successor organization to GC&CS) |
| Gestapo |
Geheime Staats Polizei (Secret State Police) |
| GPCC |
German Police Concentration Camp [communications] |
| GPD |
German Police Decrypts |
| HCC |
Historical Cryptographic Collection, RG 457 |
| Hut (3/4/6/8) |
Buildings in the Bletchley Park complex in which the various operational activities, such as decryption and translation, of the GC&CS were conducted |
| ISCOT |
Intelligence Source Scott |
| ISK |
Intelligence Source [Dillwyn] Knox. Abwehr machine ciphers. |
| ISOCICLE |
SD ciphers |
| ISOS |
Intelligence Source Oliver Strachey. Abwehr manual ciphers. |
| JIC |
Joint Intelligence Committee |
| Kripo |
Kriminal polizei (Criminal Police) |
| MAGIC |
Cover name for translations from Japanese diplomatic messages |
| MASK |
Cover name for translations of COMINTERN messages by GC&CS |
| MEW |
Ministry of Economic Warfare (Great Britain) |
| M.I.5 |
British Security Service (or Security Service) |
| M.I.6 |
British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or Secret Service) |
| MIS |
Military Intelligence Service, G-2 of the U.S. War Department |
| MS |
Monitoring Station (usually followed by a one- or two-digit designation) |
| MSS |
Most Secret Source, a caveat for intelligence derived from high-level cryptanalysis |
| NARA |
National Archives and Records Administration |
| NGO |
nongovernmental organization |
| NSA/CSS |
National Security Agency/Central Security Service |
| OKW-Chi |
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht/ Chiffrierungabteilung |
| OP-20-G |
Designator for the U.S. Navy’s cryptologic organization. It was an element of under the Director for Naval Communications. |
| Orpo |
Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) |
| OSS |
Office of Strategic Services |
| OTP |
one-time pad |
| OWI |
Office of Wartime Information (U.S.) |
| PRO |
Public Record Office/National Archives |
| Purple |
U.S. designator for Japanese diplomatic cipher machine “B” |
| "Q" |
designator for GC&CS diplomatic translations |
| RSHA |
Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office) |
| RSS |
Radio Security Service |
| SB |
Special Branch, G-2, War Department |
| Schupo |
Schutz Polizei (Civil Police) |
| SCU |
Special Communications Unit |
| SD |
Sichersheitsdienst (Security Service) |
| Sipo |
Sichersheits Polizei (Security Police) |
| SIS |
U.S. Army Signals Intelligence Service |
| SIS |
Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6, UK) |
| SLU |
Special Liaison Unit (UK) |
| SS |
Schutzstaffel |
| SSO |
Special Security Officer (U.S.) |
| T/A |
Traffic analysis |
| Ultra |
cover name for intelligence derived from high-level cryptanalysis |
| Venona |
The cover name given the project by the U.S. Army (and continued by the Armed Forces Security Agency and its successor, the National Security Agency) to exploit the encoded messages of the various Soviet intelligence services, the NKVD and GRU, that contained information from the various intelligence agents and networks operating within the United States. |
| Y-Service |
term used by British to categorize intercept and related activities. |
